This weekend I built two 1 pound [454 gram) r/c bots
intended for competition at MURC or a Sozbots event. Note:
as of 2010 these competitions do not exist.

These little guys use a highly modified Battlebot
toy
as a
platform, which are actually very easy to work with to
make
something unique, but inexpensive.

Plane-Jane has a carbon fibre
plane on the front and has been rewired to disable certain
features that are part of the toy and the dry cells have
been replaced with Ni-Cads. I had to add a steel bar under
the plane to get the weight up , but it is still
underweight at .9 lb [411 gm]

Blizzard has a 4130 chromolly steel 'snow' plow
on the front. The plow itself is 3/8 of the overall weight
of the bot. You don't want to catch this when it falls of
the dinner table as the plow blade is really sharp. The
holes in the 3.2mm thick plow are to help bring the bot
into weight compliance.
The front was originally the rear of the toy, but the
motor
controller was rewired to get the forward direction and
steering modified to reverse the direction. It has also
has
been rewired to disable certain features that are part of
the toy and the dry cells have been replaced with Ni-Cads.
The front extension aand battery compartment was cut off
and the new Nicad batteries were mounted over the wheels.
The toy's wheels were replaced with wheels from the on-
linline Sozbots store.